“Chris is very involved in his community, and as we were looking for a superintendent, someone with a great deal of community involvement, great passion for kids and giving them a quality education is really what we were looking for and we found all those qualities in Chris,” Kesterson said.

The hire comes after turmoil in the Ashland area district last year. In June, Former Assistant Superintendent Carolyn Deffenbaugh resigned, and wrote a letter accusing Superintendent Charlotte Miller of favoring staff members and undeserved raises. A principal resigned shortly after, and a few months later Miller decided to retire this June. Kesterson says the board discussed the situation with each of the candidates for the job, and assured them all the issues are being addressed.

“We learned very many valuable lessons out of all of that, one of them being better communication with the community. We are moving forward and have had a great school year so far. So we just wanted him to be sure he understood that the board was fully supportive of him,” Kesterson said.

Kesterson says Felmlee was in Ashland Wednesday visiting the schools, and that he’ll be working on his transition to Ashland, but also away from the Van-Far school district. His first work day will be July 1st.